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NPG Press release:

Co-opting behavioural responses for development

Dopamine signaling prevents elongation of the feeding structure in sea urchin larvae, when food is abundant, reports a study published in Nature Communications this week. These findings suggest that sea urchin larvae may have appointed a pathway normally used for behavioural responses to instead alter their development.

Food or prey can act as a powerful stimulus to elicit metabolic, behavioural and developmental responses in organisms. Like many other prey-induced responses, the sea urchin larval response has been characterized as an offensive response, to increase food acquisition of the predator. Diane Adams and colleagues show that the food-induced dopamine signaling suppresses the developmental 'default' program operating in pre-feeding larvae to produce shorter feeding structures with lower food acquisition potential. The authors demonstrate that when food is abundant, sea urchin larvae protrude a shorter feeding arm and trade-off maximum food acquisition potential in order to conserve maternal resources and thus maximize fitness.

Nature Communications Featured Image 12/20

These findings suggest that dopamine signalling can be manipulated in order to rapidly alter development in response to food availability.

 

Rapid adaptation to food availability by a dopamine-mediated morphogenetic response

Diane K. Adams, Mary A. Sewell, Robert C. Angerer, Lynne M. Angerer
Published online: 20 December 2011 | doi 10.1038/ncomms1603
Abstract | Full text | PDF